Tag: #BillBarr

Marco Rubio Sides With The President – Asks AG Barr To Open Investigation Into Kerry’s Potential Law Violations With Iran

Sen. Marco Rubio wrote a letter to Attorney General Barr asking the Department of Justice to investigate potential legal violations by former Secretary of State John Kerry following President Trump‘s accusation that he violated the Logan Act by talking with Iranian officials after leaving the office.

On Monday, Marco Rubio, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent AG Barr a letter asking the DOJ to investigate former Secretary of State Kerry for potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and the Logan Act.

John Kerry had talked to Iranian officials many times in attempts to keep the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action he negotiated in motion after President Trump backed out of it last year.

In his letter, Marco Rubio proclaimed that the Americans “deserve[d] to know” that laws will be enforced regardless of the previous positions held by those who try to break them. He continued and demanded that the DOJ “make a determination” on whether John Kerry broke the law.

“The American people deserve to know that U.S. laws are enforced regardless of any individual’s past position. The Department of Justice should therefore make a determination on whether or not former Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s recent actions related to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran potentially violate the Logan Act or the Foreign Agents Registration Act.” Said Rubio.

Sen. Rubio also included the original letter that he sent to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year asking for an investigation into John Kerry.

The Logan Act makes it a crime for an American citizen to negotiate deals with a foreign government during international disputes with no federal approval.

FARA is described by the DOJ as “a disclosure statute that requires persons acting as agents of foreign principals in a political or quasi-political capacity to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities.”

As previously reported, President Trump accused John Kerry of violating the Logan Act while answering questions at the White House last week. President Trump added that John Kerry “should be prosecuted” for the alleged Logan Act violation.

Former DOJ Official Claims Democrats Should Be ‘Quite Worried’ About AG Barr’s ‘Bulldog’ Prosecutor

A former Justice Department official claims that the Democrats should be “quite worried” about Attorney General Barr’s investigation on the origins of the Russia probe.

Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo spoke to Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on Monday and told her that AG Barr’s move to assign special ‘bulldog’ prosecutor John Durham to investigate the investigators is a sure sign that he thinks something criminal took place even at the outset of Mueller’s probe into alleged Russian collusion with Trump’s campaign in the 2016 election.

“If I were the Democrats I would be quite worried,” John Yoo, an official in the George W. Bush administration, stated on “The Ingraham Angle” Monday.

“And the reason why is, by appointing a U.S. attorney, Attorney General Barr is essentially signaling that he thinks it’s possible that criminal violations occurred in the start of the whole investigation into any kind of Trump-Russian collusion,” he explained.

With an investigation by the Justice Department inspector general into the FBI’s use of FISA applications coming to completion, John Yoo noted the seriousness of appointing someone like Durham who former independent counsel Ken Starr called “the most respected prosecutor in the United States.”

“As Judge Barr said, there is already an inspector general investigation that’s going to come to a conclusion. That’s what you would do if you were just interested in reforming the way the department does things, the way decisions were made,” John Yoo continued.

“But you wouldn’t go with a U.S. Attorney like Durham, someone of his stature, unless the attorney general thinks actually something criminal might have happened,” he added, “that someone might have violated the law, that there might have been malfeasance, that people at the FBI or the Justice Department were acting out of partisan motives, not just out of incompetence or stupidity or they were duped by the Russians or Steele or the English or by the Clinton campaign.”

Last month, AG Barr told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that he did believe “spying did occur” on Trump’s campaign, as he announced that he would be looking into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.

“I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal, it’s a big deal,” Barr said at the time.”But, the question is whether it was predicated — adequately predicated — and I’m not suggesting it wasn’t adequately predicated, but I need to explore that.”

“I think it’s my obligation,” Barr added. “Congress is usually very concerned about intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies staying in their proper lane and I want to make sure that happened. We have a lot of rules about that.”

At the time when that hearing took place, AG Barr indicated that he did not yet have put a team together but was working on it.

So in light of last week’s political theater by the Dems under House Judiciary Committee chairman Nadler as they voted to hold AG Barr in contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena for the unredacted report from Robert Mueller’s investigation, John Yoo saw AG Barr’s move as one that Democrats should be “really worried” about.

“So if you are a Democrat, I think you would be really worried to see the appointment of a career prosecutor like this,” he told Ingraham.

WATCH: AG Barr Breaks Silence – Mocks Nadler & The Democrats Over Contempt Charge

Attorney General William Barr broke his silence after House Democrats, led by Jerry Nadler, held him in contempt.

This unprecedented step had only been taken once by Congress, when Eric Holder and Obama refused to turn over information on Fast and Furious.

The difference is that the GOP Congress tried to negotiate for two years before taking the drastic step of holding Eric Holder in contempt.

AG Barr joked on the subject on Thursday during a farewell ceremony for his Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, as reported by The Washington Post.

“You like records,” Barr said at the Justice Department event, referring to Rosenstein. “This must be a record for an attorney general being proposed for contempt within a hundred days of taking office.”

After the Justice Department defied a subpoena to hand over special counsel Mueller’s unredacted report for the Russia investigation, the House Judiciary Committee voted to cite AG Barr for contempt of Congress, but did so along party lines. Meanwhile, the White House asserted executive privilege over Mueller’s findings.

Republicans voted against the contempt resolution, arguing that the Dems only intend to drag out the Mueller probe, which found no criminal conspiracy between the President Trump’s campaign and Russia, but made no determination about whether President Trump tried to obstruct the investigation.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, spoke for the press and told them that the United States is now in a “constitutional crisis.”

As Fox News reported, Nadler took a very different stance on contempt in 2012, when House Republicans took the same step against then-AG Holder for refusing to hand over documents related to the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal.

“Just joined the #walkout of the House chamber to protest the shameful, politically-motivated GOP vote holding AG [Eric] Holder in contempt,” Nadler tweeted in 2012.

He joined more than 100 Democrats in walking out over the vote to hold the Obama-era DOJ leader in contempt.

Then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, argued House Republicans were more politically motivated in attacking Holder than driven to get to the bottom of the failed operation.

“What is happening here is shameful,” said Nancy Pelosi.

‘I Will Not Yield!’ Jim Jordan Draws The Line – Goes Off On Nadler & The Dems For Attacking AG Barr & Covering Up Spygate

Congressman Jim Jordan refused to back down to Chairman Nadler during a hearing on Wednesday and his rant over it was epic.

Congressman Jordan, a minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, went off on Democrats for holding AG Barr in contempt of Congress for following the law.

“Bill Barr is following the law and what’s his reward? Democrats gotta hold him in contempt,” said Jordan arguing that the Dems just want to destroy AG Barr because they are afraid of him after he claimed that, “spying did occur.”

“He’s [Barr] going to get to the bottom of everything — he’s going to find out how and why this investigation started in the first place.” said the Ohio lawmaker.

Chairman Nadler tried to interrupt Jordan as the Congressman pointed out that AG Barr used the term “political surveillance.”

Rep. Jordan wasn’t having it. “I will not yield!” Jordan said and continued with his tirade.

On Wednesday, President Trump asserted executive privilege over the full, unredacted version of Robert Mueller’s report and the House Dems voted to hold Attorney General Barr in contempt of Congress for refusing to give Congress the full report and underlying grand jury material.

The Judiciary Committee, controlled by the Democrats, chaired by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, held a vote on Wednesday and voted on party lines — 22 Dems to 12 Republicans.

The measure will then move to the full House for a vote later this month.

Republican Congressman Jim Jordan is correct on this. The Democrats are afraid of AG Bill Barr because unlike his predecessor, Jeff Sessions, he is about the rule of law and will not cower in the face of screeching Dems.

Top Democrat Hits A Wall When Asked Why Obama’s AG Did Nothing Wrong, But AG Barr Should Be Held In Contempt

Congressman David Cicilline hit a brick wall when he was asked why he supports holding Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress.

During a “Fox News Sunday” interview with host Chris Wallace, Cicilline was pushed to explain the difference between this case and the “Fast and Furious” scandal, and the sudden change of pace by Democrats. Congressman Cicilline started by claiming Holder was going to work with Republicans, but they wanted the “stunt” to move forward.

“They’re quite different, Chris. In [Holder’s] instance, the White House had already indicated it would release all the documents and the attorney general said the same. The Republicans, nonetheless, wanted to go forward with the contempt citation. It was close to an election and they thought it would be politically advantageous. It was really a stunt. In this case, the attorney general had continued to refuse to comply with the lawfully issued subpoena.” Cicilline said.

Host Wallace immediately pushed back on Cicilline, correcting his claims.

“The House sued for documents that Eric Holder hadn’t turned over that they wanted him to testify on and he didn’t testify,” said Wallace.

“The point is kind of the same, which is the attorney general refused to answer requests from the House and the House voted him in contempt.” He continued.

Wallace noted that Congressman David Cicilline saw that case as an “abuse of power” back in 2012, but no longer sees it that way for the attorney general appointed by a Republican.

Cicilline, who is the chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee—floundered, claiming that Holder gave an “assurance” that the documents would be turned over and Barr has yet to do so.

He claimed that “no one” wants to hold AG Barr in contempt so long as he promises to turn over the unredacted report.

It is not yet clear if AG Barr will overturn the tradition of prosecutors protecting third-parties in order to appease the House Democrats.

Nadler Issues A Threat To AG Barr – Claims He Will Be Put Down If DOJ Refuses To Release Unredacted Mueller Report

On Friday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler warned Attorney General Barr in a letter that Democrats will initiate contempt proceedings unless the Justice Department releases the full version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

“The Committee is prepared to make every realistic effort to reach an accommodation with the Department,” Nadler wrote in the letter. “But if the Department persists in its baseless refusal to comply with a validly issued subpoena, the Committee will move to contempt proceedings and seek further legal recourse.”

NBC News reported that Nadler issued a subpoena for the unredacted Mueller report on April 19 with an initial deadline of Wednesday. The letter includes a new date: Monday, May 6, at 9 a.m.

“The Department has repeatedly asserted that Congress’ requests do not serve ‘legitimate’ purposes,” states the letter. “This is not the Department’s judgment to make. Congress’s constitutional, oversight and legislative interest in investigating misconduct by the President and his associates cannot be disputed.”

The letter comes one day after AG Barr declined to testify before the House on Thursday after the House Judiciary Committee voted on Wednesday to allow staff lawyers to question the attorney general.

Barr previously stated that if the Dems insisted on having staffers question him, he would cancel his testimony, and that he should only face questions from the committee’s members since staffers do not normally question witnesses at hearings.

The attorney general faced questions on Wednesday from a number of Democrats at the House Judiciary Committee who accused him of misrepresenting the Mueller report, downplaying evidence and siding with President Trump on the case.

The attorney general, however, has so far complied with multiple requests from Democratic leadership, including releasing the redacted version of the Mueller report and the full text of the letter Mueller sent him.

AG Barr defended himself at the hearings on Wednesday and again asserted the Mueller report does not reveal any evidence that President Trump colluded with Russian operatives during the election.

“To listen to some of the rhetoric, you’d have figured that the Mueller report had found the opposite,” He told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“How did we get to the point here where the evidence is now that the president was falsely accused of colluding with the Russians, and accused of being treasonous, and accused of being a Russian agent?” asked Barr, adding, “the evidence now is that was without a basis.”

“Two years of his administration have been dominated by the allegations that have now been proven false.”

On Wednesday AG Barr also suggested that spying on the Trump campaign took place.

“I think spying did occur. Yes, I think spying did occur. But the question is whether it was predicated, adequately predicated,” Barr said. “I’m not suggesting it wasn’t adequately predicated, but I need to explore that.”

Justice Department Blasts Pelosi After She Accused AG Barr Of Committing A Crime

The Department of Justice is sounding off on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who accused Attorney General Barr of committing a crime by lying to Congress following his contentious Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Wednesday.

“What is deadly serious about it is the attorney general of the United States of America was not telling the truth to the Congress of the United States. That’s a crime,” Nancy Pelosi said to reporters during a press conference on Thursday, adding that she stays open to the possibility of Barr facing jail time.

Pelosi appeared to be referencing Barr’s earlier testimony in which he claimed to be unaware of concerns from special counsel Mueller or his team about the attorney general’s handling of his report after news broke that Mueller complained about Barr’s summary.

The DOJ, however, responded to her accusation in a scathing statement issued by the department’s spokeswoman.

“The baseless attack on the Attorney General is reckless, irresponsible and false,” Department of Justice spokeswoman Kerri Kupec posted.

Pelosi’s claim about William Barr comes as the attorney general skipped attending a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday after the Dems voted to allow congressional staff and lawyers to ask questions.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders mocked the House Democrats as the hearing began.

“I lost confidence in Jerry Nadler a long time ago but I was unaware that he had lost confidence in himself and his ability to do his job and that is to ask questions,” she said at the time.

Many Democrats called for AG Barr’s resignation after Wednesday’s Senate hearing. After his no-show at the House’s counterpart hearing, House Democrats began threatening to hold him in contempt of Congress.

Jerrold Nadler Receives A Melt Down After William Barr Decides To Skip Giving House Hearing

This Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler received a melt down after William Barr decided to pass on giving testimony over the Mueller report.

The New Yorker is spitting nails now that the reports came true and the attorney general has rejected showing up for what would have been a circus after Nadler radically changed the format of the hearing to allow Dem congressional legal eagles to subject him to questions as if he was on trial.

After a day when AG Barr held his ground while humiliating the Dems in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, he ignored the calls of some authoritarian Democrats who want to have him arrested by telling “Fat Jerry” to stuff his dog and pony show where the sun doesn’t shine.

The attorney general was wise enough to realize that he was walking into a trap following the synchronized release of a “snitty” letter from Mueller to Barr whining about the summary of his report that was published within minutes by both the Washington Post and the New York Times, the canny top law enforcement official in the USA said no thank you.

Upon being slammed by Barr, Nadler waddled directly to the media to pitch his latest fit.

The House Judiciary Committee has been informed that Bill Barr will not testify at a planned hearing Thursday, an aide to the panel told Fox News — even as the Dems who lead the committee vowed to hold it anyway, and threatened a possible contempt citation against Barr.

The prospect of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, gaveling a hearing with an empty chair came hours after Barr endured withering questioning from the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier today.

Democratic Caucus chairman Hakeem Jeffries, stated Wednesday that the Dems “plan on subpoenaing” Barr “if he decides not to show up.”

“He can run but he can’t hide,” Jeffries said.

A key point was that Nadler wants to have House Judiciary Committee staff, rather than members of Congress, question AG Barr on handling of Mueller’s report. But DOJ officials said members should conduct the inquiry, and it was unclear why the Dems didn’t propose having staffers simply provide questions to members during the hearing.

In remarks to reporters Wednesday afternoon, Nadler said Democrats had “worked around the clock” to address AG Barr’s concerns, and slammed what he called Barr’s “lack of candor.”

“He’s trying to blackmail the committee into not following the most effective means of eliciting the information we need,” Nadler said. “He is terrified of having to face a skilled attorney.”

Nadler also stated that the DOJ had denied House Democrats’ request for the full and unredacted Mueller report and that compliance with congressional subpoenas is “not optional.”

Is there any wonder left in Americans on why Barr would choose to skip Nadler’s committee inquisition? Here is a video from Wednesday where Nadler refused to allow members of the opposition party to speak like one of the apparatchiks in the old Soviet politburo.

Nadler has vowed to subpoena AG Barr but may have a tough time with pulling off his sham hearing unless he caves and walks back his alteration of the traditional format which would be a disaster for the Democrats after their tough talk.

Barr In Laughter After Ted Cruz Applauded Him For Surviving The ‘Kavanaugh Treatment’ From Dems At The Hearing

On Wednesday, Senator Ted Cruz cheered and applauded Attorney General William Barr for making it through the “Kavanaugh treatment” while he testified before senators about his release of the Mueller report.

After listening to many Democrat senators grill Barr and insinuate that he had misled Americans about the contents of Mueller’s report, Ted Cruz took the stage and drew parallels between the treatment of Barr and now Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a man who was subjected to an intense confirmation process after he being accused of sexual assault by the controversial Christine Blasey Ford.

“You’ve had an extraordinarily successful legal career, you didn’t have to take this job, and you step forward and answered the call yet again knowing full well that you would be subject to the kind of slanderous treatment, the Kavanaugh treatment, that we have seen of senators impugning your integrity,” said Cruz in his opening remarks.

“And I, for one, am grateful that you answered that call and are leading the Department of Justice both with integrity and fidelity to law. That is what the nation rightly expects of our attorney general. And I believe you are performing that very ably.” he continued.

The Texas senator continued and said that Wednesday’s hearing should be “revealing” to anyone watching.

“I think this hearing today has been quite revealing to anyone watching it, although perhaps not for the reasons some of the Democratic senators intended,” Said Cruz. He went on to call out Democrat lawmakers for their “extreme rhetoric” during the investigation. He also slamed the Dems for hardly mentioning the word “Russia” during the hearing, but instead focusing on a letter Robert Mueller reportedly sent to Barr where the special counsel said he was unsatisfied with Barr’s public summary of the investigation.

“The principal attack that the Democratic senators have marshaled upon you concerns this March 27th letter from Robert Mueller, and it’s an attack that I want people to understand just how revealing it is. Because if this is their whole argument, they ain’t got nothing,” he said.

He also went on to say that the Dems have an “exceptionally weak argument” if their major concern with Barr is simply how he summarized the report, rather than the report’s actual contents.

“Their entire argument is: General Barr, you suppressed the 19 pages that are entirely public, that we have, that we can read, that they know every word of it, and their complaint is it was delayed a few weeks,” said Cruz.

He continued, “And that was because of your decision not to release the report piecemeal but rather to release those 19 pages, along with the entire 448 pages produced by the Special Counsel.”

“Yes,” Barr replied.

“If that is their argument, I have to say that is an exceptionally weak argument,” said Cruz, which made the attorney general laugh. “Because if you’re hiding something, I’ll tell you right now, General Barr, you’re doing a very lousy job of hiding it. Because the thing that they’re suggesting you hid, you released, to Congress and the American people.”

‘Why? Why?’: Nicolle Wallace Explodes On Live TV After Attorney General Barr’s Presser

This Thursday morning, MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace exploded in rage after the aftermath of Attorney General Bill Barr’s press conference.

Nicolle Wallace’s mental condition visibly deteriorated during the course one particularly impassioned rant, in which she smeared Attorney General Barr as “shill” and a “human shield” for President Trump, until she was reduced to repeatedly crying, “Why? Why?”

The grief-stricken Deadline: White House host began her tirade with a number of accusations for President Trump: “As the country’s chief executive, he sat in his pajamas watching Fox & Friends maligning the FBI, maligning Robert Mueller, maligning Rod Rosenstein.”

She then turned her ire to Barr: “And what the country’s Attorney General did was walk in there and back up the guy doing the kicking.”

“Why?” She demanded. “Why?”

Her colleague, veteran MSNBC reporter Brian Williams inquired, “Do you have an answer for that?”

“I don’t” Nicolle Wallace replied, visibly exasperated. After questioning the legitimacy of President Trump’s having appointed William Barr to begin with, Wallace reached a crescendo.

“There will be a strong wave of trying to bully the press, saying, “It’s over! It’s over! No collusion, no obstruction.”” she said.

Really? Then why did that all happen today? Why have we heard from Barr five times if the Mueller report is so awesome for Donald Trump? We have now heard from someone who is a human shield of Mueller’s findings five times. If Mueller exonerated Trump on collusion, if there’s nothing ugly in there, why have we heard from Barr five times?” she asked.

Exit mobile version